Epilogophila: Third Down and Twenty Years to Life
by owlcroft
Summary: The football game leads to another argument about justice, which has a surprising resolution.


**Third Down and Twenty Years to Life**

_Gina Longren, the sister of a man wrongfully convicted of murder in Hardcastle's court, brings the case up to him when he guest-lectures at her college. After an attempt is made to kidnap her, McCormick is sent to college undercover and the guys' investigation reveals the true killer. A touch football game on the side lawn follows the release of the innocent man from prison._

**Epilogue –** Owlcroft

"We should have some arnica around the house," the judge grumbled. He dabbed gingerly at his elbow with a damp cloth.

McCormick looked up from spreading mercurochrome on the back of his hand. "What's arnica?"

"Ah, it's some kinda goop my mother used to put on bruises and scrapes and stuff. Smelled okay, felt pretty good. Supposed to help it heal and all." Hardcastle paused in his dabbing for a moment. "I think it's herbal or something."

"Bet she had to keep a lot of it in the old medicine chest, with you running around." Mark blew gently on his hand to dry the mercurochrome. "Probably grew her own arnica plants in the garden." He followed the judge out of the bathroom into the hallway. "Where's Sarah gone?"

Hardcastle led the way down the steps into the den and headed for his desk. "I think she said something about onions for the stew. Back in about ten more minutes."

Mark leaned casually against the wrought iron railing and watched Hardcastle sort papers into piles.

After a few moments of that, the judge looked up sharply. "You got no chores you oughtta be doing?"

"Well, Sarah wanted me to fix one of the shelves in the kitchen for her, so I figured I'd do that next." McCormick plopped into the wing chair at the end of the desk. "But I'm not sure which one it is, and she'll be back soon, so why start something else?"

The judge shrugged an acquiescence and began thumbing through a file folder.

Another few moments passed in silence. Abruptly, Mark said, "So the system _doesn't_ always work."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" The judge didn't even look up from his papers.

"I _said_, your precious system doesn't always _work_. Lady Justice riding high and never failing. Everybody gets a fair shake and innocent people never get convicted." McCormick waved a derisory hand, decorated with mercurochrome, in the air. "Only the bad guys go to prison and nobody ever makes a mistake. Hah!"

The judge put down his file folder and leaned forward over the desk, staring at McCormick intently. "Are we gonna go through _that _again?"

McCormick stared right back. "Yeah, we're gonna go through it again. Kenny Longren was _innocent _and he still went to jail."

"So? The system worked just fine, didn't it? We found out he was innocent and nailed the real bad guy. See how it works?" The folder was shoved aside and Hardcastle planted both hands on the desk-top.

"That's not _working_! It was a total coincidence that you lectured at that college!" Mark bent forward and glared at the judge. "If Gina hadn't ragged on you in class that day, Kenny'd still be locked up and you know it."

"It did _too _work! She went through channels, she brought me into it and we figured it out! If it hadn't been me, she'd've got somebody else to dig through the facts and spring Kenny." Hardcastle stabbed a finger at McCormick. "You have to work with the system, and that's just what she did."

"He went to _prison_, Hardcase! He spent time in a _prison_ and he was _innocent_. You use all these Disney names for it – House of Many Doors, Bad Boy Camp, it's _prison_ and it's scary and horrible and Kenny didn't belong there, and neither did I!" McCormick sprang up and leaned over the desk, staring down at the judge. "You spend all your time there terrified! You keep your back to the wall, you don't trust _anybody_, you hear people screaming in the night and you know you can't do anything about it. It's _not _a camp, it's _not _cute, it's _prison _and the judicial system you're so proud of sent an innocent man there!"

The judge leaned back slowly and closed his eyes. "You're right." He took a deep breath and re-opened his eyes, looking directly at McCormick. "It did. The system let Kenny down . . . but it picked him back up again. No system is perfect, but this one works better than any other. And if you don't uphold justice, then sooner or later, there won't be any, for _anybody_."

Mark straightened up, took a step back, and eased down into the wing chair again, never taking his gaze from Hardcastle. "So . . . Lady Justice makes mistakes sometimes, but that's okay if you catch them and fix it, huh?"

"No," Hardcastle sighed. "It's not okay. But it's the best we can do. We're only human, ya know."

McCormick brooded on that for a minute, rubbing a finger on the arm of the chair. "But _I _was innocent. And _I _didn't get sprung by some judicial do-gooder, and _I _didn't get an apology from the state."

"I thought we'd get around to that before long." The judge rubbed at the side of his jaw tiredly and sighed again. "Look, I just heard Sarah close the back door. You wanna hold off on this 'til you got that shelf fixed and we've had supper? Then, I'll dig out a coupla bricks and we can heave 'em at each other until you're tired, okay?"

Mark tried not to smile, but gave up. "Yeah, that's a plan. Bricks at twenty paces after the peach cobbler."

"Peach cobbler?" Hardcastle beamed. "Get on in there and tell her to hurry it up. Touch football makes a guy hungry, ya know." He made a shooing motion, then picked up the topmost file folder on his desk.

McCormick stood up, stretching a bit, and inspected the back of his hand. "I'll ask her if she's got any arnica, too."


End file.
